Preparing for Santa Claus

 

This is our Christmas from 2 years ago. It all started with a tree. This tree below that Reya made in her school. A simple paper Christmas tree that she colored and decorated with glitter. And that got me thinking....

I helped Reya make paper Christmas stockings to hang... again a simple cutout from construction paper decorated with scrap paper bits and ice cream sticks... and we hung them on the fire place

We always got the kids a gift on Christmas, but with a tree (even a fake one), I couldn't resist wrapping the gifts and putting them under the tree as a surprise on Christmas morning. Not all the gifts were fancy, but I took care to individually wrap them in diff papers to give the arrangement a visual interest. And, lastly I topped it up with a letter from Santa with a list of things for the kids to do before next Christmas (there is no such thing as a free gift.... they all come with strings attached... LOL)...

And that turned out to be a really good surprise for the kids...

Let's see what I can do for this Christmas!

Signing off,

Shilpa

Diwali Rangoli

Wishing you all a very very happy Diwali!

I made this Rangoli 2 years back on Diwali... being my first Rangoli I was pretty nervous, but it turned out OK. Now Rangoli (or "Rangooli" as my 2 year old calls it) is a family activity on Diwali and this year my kids helped me do it... will post pics soon!

Signing off,
Shilpa

Fingerprints Art

This is something that Princess R and I did together.

Princess R loves painting and crafts, but generally likes to follow directions and gets easily frustated if she does not know what to make. Or if she does not have a project in mind, she is shy to even start and explore. I try to nudge her imagination from time to time.

Castle centerpieces

I made these centerpieces for a conference a few years ago...

In fact I made 24 of them...

New Artsy - Craftsy challange!

Well, I did not win the Artsy Craftsy challange last month... but that's allright! It just means, I need to try again! This month the Artsy Craftsy challange theme is "Stick fun"... which means any project where glue plays an important role.

Oh! I love that... I have all kinds of glue waiting to be used! Glue sticks, liquid glue, glitter glue, super glue, gorrilla glue, spray adhesive, you name it and chances are that I have it.

Pipe cleaner flowers

Add caption

I have a ton of arts and crafts supplies including a huge bag of pipe cleaners... and I was thinking of an easy pipe cleaner craft to do with Princess R. So I settled on pipe cleaner flowers.

However, all flower ideas I looked online were rather 2-dimensional... bend the cleaner in petal / leaf shapes and you are done, which is not what I had in mind. I wanted the flowers to be more full and have a body, not just shape. So I came up with the above flowers.

They are pretty easy to make.

1. For each flower, you need 3 or more colored pipe cleaners for the flower itself and 2 or more green pipe cleaners for the stem and leaves.
2. You start by rolling the coloured pipe cleaner into a coil on a small cylinerical shape. I used a AAA battery, about you can choose anything.
3. You then take a green pipe cleaner and use it to thread the coloured coils.
4. Then twist the green pipe cleaner and arrange the coils so that they form an round circle... your flower is ready. If you want, you take take one end of the green cleaner and make a small loop and push it in the middle of the flower like I did.
5. You now use the second green cleaner to make leaves if desired.

Enjoy... and do send me pictures of your crafts...

Hoorah! My wall got featured....

Hurrah!

I am so excited... My wall got featured at Patricia's Colours Decor blog...

I love Patricia's blog... Always a feast for the eyes... check it out!

And if you have a wall that you would like to be featured, send her a note...

Again... Hurrah!

Plastic bag flowers

I hate to admit, but I have a ton of plastic bags from grocery shopping...

My intentions are noble... I do try to carry tote bags in my car for groceries... but for some or the other reason once they come in the house, they don't go back in the car for weeks... and right when I am in grocery store, I realize my mistake. But it's too late and I come back home with more and more plastic bags.

And the answer to my wall question is...

Hi there, so last week, I posted my first wall and asked people to guess how I made it...

Well this is how I did it...

My first Wall...

This was the first wall / room that I decorated for Princess R... so this is very special to me.

She was 2 years old this time and we were

Refrigerator Magnets from recycled gift cards

 

Each year, we get several gift cards on birthdays, anniversary and holidays. Each time I am done using the gift card, I feel bad about just throwing the plastic card away since it's not bio-degradable. So recently, I decided to mix reuse with education.

Contest Entry

Well 2 days ago, I posted the cake centerpiece/ gift wrapping idea and today I saw the "Treasure from Trash" contest here.  Now this is what I call fortunate coincidence. Let's see how I do in this contest... Wish me luck.

I will be submitting more entries to this contest next week including a very special one... can't tell you what it is just yet. You will have to wait and see.

Cake Centerpiece / Gift wrapping

I made this mock cake centerpiece as a prototype for a conference... but it's a beautiful gift wrapping idea... and it's very easy to put together.

I reused 2 gift size boxes

Introducting The Crafts Corner

Hello everyone,

And a warm welcome to The Crafts Corner.

Since childhood, I have been in love with all things creative... My earliest craft education came from my nani (grandmother) who taught me knitting, crochet, sewing, needlework and a lot more ... Later on, every summer when school was out, I enrolled in classes and tried to learn some new arts and crafts... Over the years, I have worked on dozens (if not hundreds) of arts and crafts projects... I love to teach crafts to kids... and my kids are at an age now where I can teach them all I have learnt...

So keep visiting and take a look at some arts and crafts that I work upon or come across... and if you want me to feature your art or craft, be sure to leave a comment...